Mad about the election? Be proactive.

I'm from Wisconsin. Sorry, Reddit--we tried, but we couldn't keep Feingold. I posted this in response to the anger I was seeing from friends:

I know a lot of you are disappointed, too. You should be. It's outrageous that people like Scott Walker and Ron Johnson are allowed to win because they flooded the airwaves with attack ads, instead of actually presenting any real ideas to fix the problems the claim to be against. It's disheartening that some of the efforts that we as a nation have finally started to make some progress on--universal health care, equal rights across sexualities, better education funding--may now be in jeopardy.

So sure, we're disappointed. Some of us our scared. Others are just pissed off. Think about it for a minute; those are the same feelings that led to the creation of the Tea Party movement.

When elections end, everyone seems to just move on to the next one. Oh well, we lost the House. We'll get it back next time. We'll push harder to keep the Senate. And we focus on that, instead of on what's happening right now.

Here's a fact. If you're living in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson now represents you. Instead of complaining, instead of moping, instead of reactionary politics that lead to the constant shifts in power between the Democrats and Republicans, we can treat this as an opportunity. Ron Johnson's campaign was based on what he claimed people of Wisconsin did not want. We can prove him wrong. For once, instead of going quietly, we can keep the pressure on. On Johnson, and on all our representatives.

Political participation doesn't end at the polls. Keep Johnson's phones ringing off the hook. He got the job, and we should make damn sure that we make him do it.

Only last weekend, a massive rally was held in D.C., the intention of which was to fight back against fear-mongering and the fall of reason in politics. John Stewart spoke out, not against Republicans, or members of the Tea Party, but against fear and hatred. So long as we continue to villianize each other, nothing significant will be accomplished by Democrats -or- Republicans.

(tl;dr: You have representatives, whether you like them or not. Use them. This defeatist attitude isn't going to get anyone anywhere.)